---Chapter 18

The dimension travelers stayed three days in the woods above the city, which they had learned was called Li’tanwa. In the night, strange things were heard moving in the trees, and more than one of them saw dark creatures with a purple sheen stalking the shadows. But they were not attacked in all that time. Neither did they find anyone who they felt was right to take with them. Most of the inhabitants did not speak a language they understood and the few whom they found that did were either entirely unfit or would not take their prophecies of other dimensions seriously.

Amber looked multiple times for the man who had helped her before, believing that he might be a good ally. When she asked at the stalls, using a mixture of gesture and the few words she had picked up in the time, the owners all claimed that they did not know the man who had been with her. When she asked for Dansei they looked confused, often pointing out any men who were walking past at the moment, until she finally realized that ‘dansei’ was simply the word for man and not a proper name at all.

On the forth morning they were forced to admit defeat. They could not find anyone on this world to help them, nor had they discovered the Power Core that was connecting it to the main power source. Though they were all for finding a way to release or defeat the Power Cores now in order to force the main source to give up its power, there was nothing they could do about it on this world. Fully provisioned, with their water tank full of the cleanest water they could find, they decided to move on.

None of them had seen the dark shape that had climbed aboard the passenger car in the night and hidden itself under the rear bench, behind the stack of extra blankets stored there. It was such a cramped space that one foot and his head were pressed against the anchored metal legs of the bench on either side.

It did not take long to prepare for the jump. Amber and Jax went forward to control the Di-jump, while the others lined up along the rail as usual. Lenny felt a small tremor of fear, wandering if they would once again be assaulted at the last instant. But his fears proved to be groundless. The shadows beneath the trees outside were empty, the branches only moved in the wind and even the spots of purple corruption on the ground did not threaten them unduly.

“I hope we can find the Power Core in the next world,” Lenny said as he took his place at the rail. “We need to start doing something before the worlds become entirely given over to this menace.”

“We’ll do our best.” Raggsy assured him.

Lenny shouted forward that they were ready and the jump began. The world faded into darkness, streaked with lightening and strange stars. Lenny heard the buzzing in his head increase for a moment, then fall away as the view turned to the solid white of the dead space. With a small jolt, they were through into the next dimension.

The first thing Lenny noted was the fact that the train was sitting unevenly. One side of the passenger car was slightly higher than the other, twisting it over to one side. Going to look out of the window, he saw that it was because they were sitting on what looked like rails, but not squarely. The starboard wheel had gone too far, so that it was resting on its narrow flange on the steel rail. Because of that, the other side was resting in between ties on the gravel ballast.

Looking forward, Lenny saw that it actually was rail for trains to run on, stretching far into the front and behind. To each side was a wide prairie of waving grass, dusky sere. The sky was lavender-gray, overcast with eerily tinted clouds. The roots of the grass seemed to be purple as well, giving the whole expanse a dreary hue.

Nothing moved but the wind in the grass in the whole landscape. It seemed bitter, empty and forlorn. Looking behind them, the only variation Lenny could see in the monotony was the distant outline of mountains, humped against the sky.

“Wow, this ain’t much better than no-where land,” Raggsy commented, pressing his moist snout to the glass nearby, “not much to eat here, unless you’re a cow.”

“Or a buffalo.” Leaflow pointed out of the opposite window, where they saw a small group of dark, massive beasts trotting past through the tall grass. They were half-hidden by it, so that they looked like brown islands moving on their own. The only odd thing about them was that their horns seemed abnormally long, pointing directly forward instead of curled towards each other.

Done with the Di-jump, Jax came walking in the door, rubbing his hands together. “It’s cold out there. Colder than you would expect, at least. Amber says that she thinks we can get the train running on the rails if we all work together.”

“Let’s go, then.” Patch went past him to open the door, taking a deep breath of the damp air outside. “Ah, I like this place. All this open space reminds me of the sea. Though it would be much better without the purple everywhere, mind you.”

They all piled out of the passenger car to stand beside the rails, searching the sky or the horizon as the fancy took them. Amber strode along the catwalk from the engine and put her hands on the rope banister with a hiss of air from her hand mechanism.

“Here’s my idea. If we lay a crowbar under each wheel, one angled inwards towards the center and the other as a sort of ramp up onto the rail, they should force the wheels into place when I move forward. I’ll go slowly, but not so slow that we loose traction. Meanwhile, you can all push on the starboard side of the car and try to get it back on. That won’t change much, most likely, but the engine is already on the rails, so we might be able to straighten the passenger car out.”

“It’s interesting that there are rails here at all,” Lenny pointed out, “and that we almost landed square on them. What’s the chance of that?”

“Small, but not next-to-nothing,” Jax returned, “you have to remember; these worlds are all, to some extent, mirrors of each other. We were on the rails in Amber’s world, so this is a projection of that world with a railroad in the same place.”

“So if we go backwards along the track, we’ll probably come to a town like the one where Amber’s was?”

“Most likely. Though, in this dimension, it might have already been destroyed, or even not been built yet. Or, because of a slight decision variance, it might never have been put there at all.”

Amber tapped her fingers impatiently on the railing. “Could we get going, please?”

“Aye, aye, ma’am.” Patch threw her a salute, leading the way around the car to the other side. Crowbars were taken from her work bench and put into place, while Amber stoked up the engine with the coals left from a few days before. Once everyone was in place, lined up with their hands against the side of the car, the signal was given to go forward. Amber slowly let on the steam. The siderods began to turn, forcing the wheels around. They slipped, stuck for a moment, then jerked forward as she put on more pressure. With a loud double-clank the whole car shuddered onto the rails, running forwards over them smoothly until Amber threw on the brakes a few hundred feet away. Lenny stooped to pick up the crowbars from the rails as they hurried towards the train. One of them was chipped on one side, but other than they they were only scratched. He felt the sweat on his forehead turn cold as they reached the train and realized at the same time that his fingers were icy on the metal bars.

“It feels almost like it’s going to snow,” he muttered.

Soleeryn, rolling her sleeves down, agreed with a nod of her head. “Though I feel that there is something stranger in this brooding land than just a storm on the way...I fear the Cruels have it well in hand.”

“You might be right.”

They all climbed aboard the caboose, hurrying through it into the passenger car, where Amber met them. “Good job. Sophia feels happy to be on the tracks again.” She giggled with a touch of embarrassment and added, “I mean, she runs better here. Shall we go forward, or back?”

It was agreed, almost unanimously, that they should go forward and see what they could find ahead of them. Raggsy followed Amber this time, to help her monitor the firebox, while the rest made themselves comfortable in the coach seats. But it wasn’t long after they got moving that a pervasive cold began to be felt in the room.

Looking around, Lenny found that there was a place for a wood stove in the corner, but it had been disassembled at some point to give way to more shelving for the work bench. He suggested that they move back to the caboose and stoke the fire to get warm, though it would be a crowd with five of them in the little space.

When everyone agreed to the plan, he went forward to tell Amber where they were going. Walking across the catwalk, he saw the land swaying past as the train picked up speed. It was dizzying to look down, with the ties and rail zipping by beneath him. The gravel ballast made a pattern of red and gray, blurred together in a stream. To each side, the land was a gently curving stretch of tall grass, all bending in waves as the wind swept over it. That wind was bitingly cold out in the open on the moving train.

Lenny hurried into the cab, where he found the firebox burning hot and warming the whole space. Amber was happily resting a hand on a lever, watching the gauges and explaining them to Raggsy. When Lenny told her their plan, she said, “that’s a good idea. But don’t use the coal too quickly; we weren’t able to restock it in Li’tanwa and we need it for cooking meals.”

“Sure.” Lenny held out his hands towards the warmth of the boiler for a minute, feeling the gentle lurch of the powerful engine beneath him. Then he turned and went back the other way, crossing the bleak walkway to the coach.

He found that everyone else had already moved into the caboose, where Jax sat up in the cupola watching the scenery go by, Soleeryn was starting to put together a pot of tea on the stove and the other two were arranging a game of cards.

“Care to join us?” Leaflow invited, with a wave of his hand towards the little table. “It’s poker, matches used for chips and whoever has the least in the end does the dishes tonight.”

“No thanks.” Lenny found a corner of bunk-bed to sit on near the stove. “If one of you is doing them anyway, there’s no point in forfeiting my freedom for a game.”

“Aye, you’re a canny man,” Patch said with a roguish grin, “but as I’m the one that was supposed to do them, there’s no loss to me to try. And I’d like to see our druidish friend try to do them with his gloves on, without getting them sopping wet.”

“They are mostly waterproof.” Leaflow held up a gloved hand, turning it around in display. “Though if they shrink too much...you might see my fingers start to ooze out like toothpaste.”

“Whatever that is,” Patch muttered, starting to deal out the cards.

“Here.” Lenny looked up to see Jax holding an electric razor down towards him. “You could use this, unless you want to become Santa Claus.”

There was no mirror there, and no hot water, but Lenny felt a rough stubble on his chin and accepted the offer. Later on, once he had given it back, he looked up at Jax. “What do you see outside?”

“Still just prairie. I noticed some sort of antelope or deer in the distance, but we’re past them now. It’s pretty dreary. More so than if it was raining, in some ways.”

“I remember the rain in the valley of mist, on the slopes of the Outland mountains.” Soleeryn put in, leaning back on a chair she had brought in, while she sipped her tea. The memory made her dark eyes brighten, so that the ring in them was distinctly brown. “Sometimes it would fall in soft, misty curtains while the sun was shining through it from further up the valley. Then we called it a golden rain and it was supposed to bring good luck to whoever stood in it. If it fell like that at night, when a full moon was shining, they called it silver rain.”

“Was there any luck attached to that sort?” Jax asked curiously, leaning down from his seat above.

“Some said that it meant you would soon meet an old friend, if you saw it.” Soleeryn gazed into her steaming cup as if it held the answer to a riddle. “Others called it 'the lonely rain’ and said that whoever it touched would grow to be bitter and old alone.”

“Was there any other legends having to do with that area?” Lenny asked, picturing in his head a green, dewy mountain slope running into a field of mist, with golden rain falling on it.

“Oh, many.” The healer smiled, her long, pale face lit up for a moment. “I used to love listening to them as a girl. Shall I tell you one of my favorites?”

Lenny nodded eagerly, while Jax dropped down beside him to listen. Soleeryn began in a hushed, rich voice, telling the story of a powerful, cruel beast who had been enchained on a clifftop by a sorcerer, left to die, and the quiet girl from a traveling band of shepherds who had felt pity for him and eventually been able to set him free. In the end, the girl had tried to use herbal concoctions and incantations in the hopes that the beast was actually a human who had been put under a spell, but to no avail. He stayed a beast, powerful and hungry. But he never harmed the girl and always bowed his head to her wishes.

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“I used to wish that I could be that girl, when I was young,” Soleeryn said with a comfortable laugh, “now, I am not so sure. What would you do with a giant beast if you had one?”

“Make it take me places on its back,” Jax declared, “and run over anyone who tried to stop me.”

At that juncture Amber came in the door, red coat pulled tightly around her. She stopped by the fire and held out her hands. “There’s something up ahead, crew. Though I’m not sure about it, it could be a town.”

Patch jumped up, letting a strayed card fall carelessly from where it was hidden on his lap, while Leaflow took the opportunity to peek at the pirate’s other cards on the table.

“Do ye think its a safe one to go into?”

“We’ll have to wait and see.” Amber turned back. “Raggsy’s driving right now, but I’d better go back to him. He’s been wanting to see how fast Sophia can go...”

She disappeared again, while the others went to the windows or climbed up into the cupola to look out. Ahead there was a dip in the prairie where, to judge by the scraggly bushes and richer color of the grass, a small stream ran. On the near side of the creek line a group of dark, square shapes stood up above the grass. Some had slanted tops, while others were more jagged on top. The track ran past the left side of this group, crossing the stream on a tiny bridge before going on across the open plains.

The train rapidly approached the shapes, which took form as a tight group of buildings, with others straggling off of it in all directions. There was a platform beside a spur of the railroad track and a little shed for luggage or other goods, but no real station.

They slowed as they neared the fork in the tracks, coming almost to a stop. Lenny, sitting next to Jax in the upper part of the caboose, saw Raggsy jump out of the train and go dashing ahead to the switch. His coat and tail flapped as he whipped around beside the switch and threw all of his strength against the lever. The rails slid over, directing the train into the spur. Amber passed Raggsy, slowing the train to a halt gradually, so that it glided softly up to the platform.

Looking towards the town, Lenny saw a dusty dirt road running from the platform over to the main street, which was at a tangent to the train tracks. The main street was made of hard-packed earth, devoid of any grass or twigs. The buildings on either side were built of wood planking, with jagged false fronts or shingled, angled roofs. A wooden boardwalk was laid between the dozen buildings along main street, but the outliers had to fend for themselves. There were hitching posts beside most stores, a large stable with its doors hanging open and at least one saloon. But Lenny could not see one living being moving in any of them.

“It looks like a ghost town,” Jax echoed his thoughts, “I don’t see anyone. Anyone alive, at least.”

“Do you see any signs of violence?” Lenny asked, suddenly worried that they would walk into the scene of a massacre.

“Just the graves.” Jax pointed off to the side of the town, where a large plot had been marked off with a dilapidated picket fence. There were wooden crosses in it, many of them fresh.

“I wonder why Amber stopped the train?”

“We need to find someone to talk to and you couldn’t see that it was a ghost town until we pulled up to the platform,” Jax returned.

They jumped down from the cupola in the caboose and joined the others making their way into the passenger car. The engineer and her rodent fireman met them there.

“My, it’s a dismal looking spot,” Amber commented, leaning on the workbench looking outside. “I’m almost sorry I stopped. Should we back out and keep going?”

“There might still be someone here. Some of those grave markers look awfully fresh. And crosses don’t set themselves up.” Jax went over and opened the door, poking his head outside as if that would give him a better view. When he drew it back in, he asked the crew in general, “well, what do you think?”

Lenny was thinking over the possibilities. “If we do go out, it should be in strong numbers in case of trouble. We don’t yet know why this town is deserted or how all of those markers came to be put in. But the train can’t go unguarded, either.”

“I’ll stay here with my train,” Amber decided immediately, “that way, if there is trouble, I can get it out on the mainline waiting for you.”

Raggsy gave a snarling grin out of the side of his snout. “I’ll stay with her.”

“I am not much of a guard, but I would prefer to stay behind as well. I don’t like the feel of this place.” Soleeryn put in, shaking her head at the dismal scene of the empty western town.

“Alright, that leaves Patch, Leaflow, Lenny and me to go.” Jax grinned. “The most murderous of the bunch. Perfect!”

Lenny barely forestalled himself from rolling his eyes. It was getting to be a bad habit of his around Jax and he wished that he could stop it.

They all piled out onto the platform, the weather-worn wood creaking underfoot. Patch stamped a big boot on it, making one plank groan and crack. “They need to replace the decks here, mates. What a run down hulk this place is!”

A cold wind was blowing sadly past the buildings as they walked into town, making unfastened gates creak and window shutters rattle. Miniature whirlwinds of dust were picked up off of the street, spinning along it until they collapsed back down into the ruts.

There were the hoof prints of horses on the road, the footprints of men and some marks that, as Leaflow pointed out, could not belong to either. They were almost more like those of a bear or a wolf, with blurred, furry edges.

In front of one store, which had ‘general goods’ written on its window, Lenny caught sight of something shining white on the ground and stopped to look at it. It was an animal’s skull, picked clean except for a few rags of shriveled skin. When he pointed it out to his companions, Patch said, “aye, a horse’s skull it is. Not too old, either, though it’s been eaten down to the bone.”

“Coyotes, maybe...?” Jax suggested nervously.

“Whatever has been here, it’s bigger than a coyote.” Leaflow spread his gloved hand next to a footprint, which was just as big as the hand from tips to palm.

Another blast of wind moaned past and Lenny shivered, looking up as something bounced lightly off his head. Another small, pebbly object followed it, striking him in the face.

“It’s starting to hail.”

Soon the white gravel was coming down in a steady stream, forcing them to open the door of the grocery store and take shelter inside. It was not a large building, though perhaps better made than many of the others. There were kegs of nails, tobacco and an empty barrel which had held gunpowder lined up against one wall, with made-up leather straps and the metal heads for tools hanging above them. A counter ran down the center of the room, with a glass display case holding pocket knives and candy. Beyond it were shelves holding a huge variety of goods, from printed fabrics to sacks of flour, from replacement parts for rifles to silk handkerchiefs. A box of soap lay open on the counter, strangely suggestive of domestic scenes. Its lid was painted with sweeping letters proclaiming ‘Aunt Vera’s Lilac and Lavender’.

The hail rattled down on the roof, rolling off onto the street outside. The ground was still dry and powdery, so that every piece made a tiny puff of dust as it hit. Watching it fall, out of the open door, Lenny noticed something odd. Every so often a piece would fall that was larger than the rest and of a dark, shiny color. They almost appeared to be little onyx stones coming down.

“What a bummer.” Jax made a face, looking out of the storefront window. “This downpour is dreary, too.”

Like most hail storms, it was soon over. The tinkle of ice hitting the roof slowed, then became an intermittent drip, before going away altogether. A small parting in the clouds let a beam of watery, depressing light fall on the street. Immediately the hail began to melt into the dust, leaving watery trails behind it. Lenny led the way back outside, but fell behind the others as he watched the hail to see what would happen to the dark ones. They oozed out into black patches on the ground, like ink, then slowly began sinking in. The dirt behind them was stained black, with purple glints where the light hit it.

“Watch out for these dark patches,” Lenny warned, “they look tainted to me.”

They had almost reached the far end of main street and at that moment heard the sound of hoof beats approaching from across the prairie. Lenny and the others all stopped and looked past the last buildings, out across the grass on the other side of town, trying to get a glimpse of what was coming. At first, the creatures making the noise were hidden from sight by the houses. After just a few seconds they came into view, five large horses with riders on their backs. The riders were dressed in dark clothes, with black hats pulled down low. Under them, no face was visible, because they were all wearing purple masks or bandannas. Where their eyes should have been were just slits of darkness.

The riders came sweeping around from the right towards the beginning of the road, pulling to a stop at the very end of main street. There the men dismounted all at once, reaching for guns or swords slung on the saddles of their horses.

“Watch out, they’re enemies!” Jax shouted, breaking for the large, false-fronted hotel which lay on their right. Everyone split and ran, as the sound of guns firing echoed through the empty town. Bullets hit the ground, flinging fountains of dust upwards.

Lenny ran with Jax up the steps of the hotel, which had a sort of latticework on the end of its wide porch which sheltered them. It cracked and splintered as a pair of bullets hit it, before the boys threw themselves through the hotel door into the interior.

Lenny slammed the door behind them, activating the cybernetics in his right arm. The hand flipped down out of the way, giving room for the steel ring of the cannon barrel to stick out. He was not sure yet if the energy lance or gun would be the better choice. It depended if their enemies followed them into the tight confines of the hotel.

Jax ran to the nearby window, looking out. After a moment he gasped, “they’ve got the other two cornered!”

Lenny joined him, looking out onto the street. Across from the hotel was a storage shed of some sort, with an open front and hay bales stacked inside. Outside of it, a group of barrels and pile of lumber made wings away from the shed’s front. Patch and Leaflow had retreated into the shed, pressed up against the wall with both of their swords drawn. The riders were approaching, carrying either rifles or their own sabers as they stalked towards the enclosure. Strangely, the horses were following them as if also intent on the hunt, teeth bared in terrible grins.

“Our friends are going to be shot to pieces,” Lenny said grimly, “we’ve got to help them. let me get back out into the open where I can use my cannon.”

For the moment, the riders were ignoring the hotel where the boys had run to escape, all except for one masked man with a sword who stood in the center of the road, eyeing it suspiciously. He had not spotted them at the window because they made sure to only peek out around the edge of the curtains.

Going back to the door, Lenny gestured at it with his arm, “you get ready to pull it open. I’ll start charging my gun, then jump out and give them a blast. I just hope they don’t shoot me first...”

Jax grasped the doorknob, looking pale. In his free hand he held the electric taser he had attacked the dogs with, so long ago on Raggsy’s world. It was his only real weapon.

Lenny began feeding energy to his cannon, charging it up so that it would be ready when he fired. He gave a nod when the blue glow was almost strong enough. The door was jerked open and he jumped out onto the porch. He heard a shot go off somewhere in the street. Striding forward, he stopped on the edge of the porch and crouched, aiming his weapon. The masked men had come around the outer edge of the barrels and shot at Patch and Leaflow once, but they were hiding behind the bales of straw now, out of sight. The man with the sword had turned around to spectate, forgetting his charges in the hotel. No one saw Lenny yet. He braced himself, aimed the cannon and fired at the group of men and horses.

That was when something went wrong. Instead of firing, the cannon shorted out. Sparks ran along the outside of it, glittering blue. Lenny heard the crackling in his head intensify until it shut out everything else. Sparks danced before his eyes and the energy that he should have been leaving the barrel shocked back through him. He felt like he was being torn apart by neon strands. The last thing he saw clearly was the man in the middle of the road running towards him, saber held up in the air. Then the crackling in his head became too much and he bowed forward in pain, falling down the porch steps into the dust.

The electric fuzz cleared slowly as he looked up blearily to see the masked man standing over him, about to slash the saber downwards. Lenny was still too stunned to move quickly or get out of the way. He felt a jab of fear run through him, along with a silent plea for his life to not end yet.

It was answered by a wild war cry and Jax came shooting off of the porch on his hoverboard, slamming into the masked man at top speed. It knocked them both sprawling into the street, where they rolled around, struggling to be in control of the sword. Lenny scrambled dizzily to his knees, seeing the group of men and horses across the street stop to look around in surprise. At the same time, Patch and Leaflow dashed out to attack them.

Everything descended into chaos as guns went off wildly, one hitting an enemy horse and sending it kicking to the ground. Jax shoved his opponent’s sword away, sticking the taser to his side and shocking him until he lay still. Lenny’s head began to clear as he heard a few shots fired from somewhere up above, from the top story of the hotel they had been hiding in. They made him jump, as they did not come from anywhere he had been expecting to hear shots come from.

Another horse and a masked man fell, screaming and writhing in the dust. Patch hacked down an assailant, decapitating him on the ground. Purple blood stained the street. The last riders and their mounts fell back, retreating around the side of the hotel.

“Come on!” Jax jumped up, grabbing Lenny’s arm. “Everyone, retreat!”

“But who fired the shots above?” Lenny asked, looking around in bewilderment.

“Who knows? Who cares!”

They all hurried down the street, turning into an alleyway that seemed to head back towards the train. It was between two tall buildings, a saloon and a fancy town-house. But they soon saw that the rear was blocked up by another wall, forcing them to stop. Lenny halted, panting and looking back. The street behind them was silent.

“Are you alright?” Jax asked him, letting go of his arm. “What happened, why didn’t you shoot? Your gun seemed to backfire.”

“Something like that.” Lenny shook his head, putting his hands to it as he heard the fizzling inside. “Something’s wrong with my cybernetics. Ever since we were hit by that lightening I’ve had problems.”

Remembering the other two, he looked up to see if they were alright. Patch was standing nearby, looking back the way they had come with a spark in his eyes as he wiped purple slime from his blade. He appeared to be uninjured. Beyond him, Leaflow was leaning against the wall of the saloon, holding a hand to his chest as if in pain.

Lenny went over to him quickly. “What’s wrong?”

The cloaked one’s gloved hand shifted just a little and a streak of purple oozed between his fingers. Lenny started, making in inarticulate noise of surprise. The purple blood was coming from Leaflow.